Acknowledgements

The World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Action International (HAI) wish to thank the European Commission (Directorate-General Development) and donors of HAI’s Global Programme of Work (Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) for their support in funding this project.

WHO and HAI thank Barbara Mintzes (Canada), principal investigator and author of this report, for her invaluable expertise and guidance.

We are grateful to the following people who contributed their time and expertise in reviewing material and managing the project:

Lastly, but most especially, WHO and HAI thank everyone who responded to the questionnaires - over 700 deans of medical and pharmacy schools who provided the names of those teaching on drug promotion in their institutions, and in addition over 260 educators who provided the detailed information found in this report. Without their support we would have been unable to examine the extent to which medical and pharmacy students are being educated about drug promotion.

This survey report is the first outcome of the project. The second outcome will be a practical guide for medical and pharmacy students on understanding and responding to pharmaceutical promotion. The guide will be tested by students in 2006. WHO and HAI intend to publish and distribute the manual to all medical and pharmacy schools worldwide in mid-2007.